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I've only got a 2 week old player and 13 DVDs to my name but something is already really starting to annoy me. Of those 13 discs, 10 of the are in identically shaped boxes - even the 2 disc Tarzan. Of the other 3, 2 of them (South Park and The Matrix) come in very cheap, semi-cardboard boxes which, although the same height, are about 5mm wider then the much more common boxes. This may seem insignificant but you put them on a shelf and they look really out of place.
I admit that there seem to be comparatively few of these boxes as I don't recall seeing them used on many films (hurrah!) but the final film I own throws up another angle to this box problem. That disc being X-Men (Region 1). For the unfamiliar, this comes a 2-part fold out box with an extra cardboard sleeve which this goes in. Imagine opening a book (to the left) and then opening another cover (to the right) and you get the idea. As before, the height is fine, but the width is about 5mm longer than most.
There are those who comment on the quality of the design of a things box whereas all it really is is cheap, novelty packaging getting in the way.
Some people will argue that a novelty box makes it a more special edition. However Tarzan comes as either 1 or 2 discs (a 'collectors edition') and both are in the same sized box, with one having a fancier cover - isn't that enough?
Look at CDs. Single, album or double album, they all come in standard sizes for their contents. The packaging only changes when the contents do. Why can't the same be said for DVDs? Box sets are fine providing they only consist of something to hold the discs together (like Aliens and Jurassic Park) but the tripe the Toy Story set comes in is awful.
I don't want to sound like my opinion on this is definitive but anyone who says non-standard boxes are a bad thing is wrong.
So there.
I admit that there seem to be comparatively few of these boxes as I don't recall seeing them used on many films (hurrah!) but the final film I own throws up another angle to this box problem. That disc being X-Men (Region 1). For the unfamiliar, this comes a 2-part fold out box with an extra cardboard sleeve which this goes in. Imagine opening a book (to the left) and then opening another cover (to the right) and you get the idea. As before, the height is fine, but the width is about 5mm longer than most.
There are those who comment on the quality of the design of a things box whereas all it really is is cheap, novelty packaging getting in the way.
Some people will argue that a novelty box makes it a more special edition. However Tarzan comes as either 1 or 2 discs (a 'collectors edition') and both are in the same sized box, with one having a fancier cover - isn't that enough?
Look at CDs. Single, album or double album, they all come in standard sizes for their contents. The packaging only changes when the contents do. Why can't the same be said for DVDs? Box sets are fine providing they only consist of something to hold the discs together (like Aliens and Jurassic Park) but the tripe the Toy Story set comes in is awful.
I don't want to sound like my opinion on this is definitive but anyone who says non-standard boxes are a bad thing is wrong.
So there.
I've only got a 2 week old player and 13 DVDs to my name but something is already really starting to annoy me. Of those 13 discs, 10 of the are in identically shaped boxes - even the 2 disc Tarzan. Of the other 3, 2 of them (South Park and The Matrix) come in very cheap, semi-cardboard boxes which, although the same height, are about 5mm wider then the much more common boxes. This may seem insignificant but you put them on a shelf and they look really out of place.
I admit that there seem to be comparatively few of these boxes as I don't recall seeing them used on many films (hurrah!) but the final film I own throws up another angle to this box problem. That disc being X-Men (Region 1). For the unfamiliar, this comes a 2-part fold out box with an extra cardboard sleeve which this goes in. Imagine opening a book (to the left) and then opening another cover (to the right) and you get the idea. As before, the height is fine, but the width is about 5mm longer than most.
There are those who comment on the quality of the design of a things box whereas all it really is is cheap, novelty packaging getting in the way.
Some people will argue that a novelty box makes it a more special edition. However Tarzan comes as either 1 or 2 discs (a 'collectors edition') and both are in the same sized box, with one having a fancier cover - isn't that enough?
Look at CDs. Single, album or double album, they all come in standard sizes for their contents. The packaging only changes when the contents do. Why can't the same be said for DVDs? Box sets are fine providing they only consist of something to hold the discs together (like Aliens and Jurassic Park) but the tripe the Toy Story set comes in is awful.
I don't want to sound like my opinion on this is definitive but anyone who says non-standard boxes are a bad thing is wrong.
So there.
I admit that there seem to be comparatively few of these boxes as I don't recall seeing them used on many films (hurrah!) but the final film I own throws up another angle to this box problem. That disc being X-Men (Region 1). For the unfamiliar, this comes a 2-part fold out box with an extra cardboard sleeve which this goes in. Imagine opening a book (to the left) and then opening another cover (to the right) and you get the idea. As before, the height is fine, but the width is about 5mm longer than most.
There are those who comment on the quality of the design of a things box whereas all it really is is cheap, novelty packaging getting in the way.
Some people will argue that a novelty box makes it a more special edition. However Tarzan comes as either 1 or 2 discs (a 'collectors edition') and both are in the same sized box, with one having a fancier cover - isn't that enough?
Look at CDs. Single, album or double album, they all come in standard sizes for their contents. The packaging only changes when the contents do. Why can't the same be said for DVDs? Box sets are fine providing they only consist of something to hold the discs together (like Aliens and Jurassic Park) but the tripe the Toy Story set comes in is awful.
I don't want to sound like my opinion on this is definitive but anyone who says non-standard boxes are a bad thing is wrong.
So there.
I think Fight Club has a great box.
I quite agree with the honourable poster ! What he fails to mention however , and i can confirm as an eye witness , is that non standard packaging pervades most retail products .
only the other day i went into Waterstones and discovered shelf after shelf of BOOKs of different thicknesses , sometimes as much as 1 millimeter difference in width between volumes that stood side by side ( i measured them ) .
Unfortunately , there IS more , some books were even taller than others , some had print that was larger than others , and most staggeringly of all , some were in foreign languages such as French or German .
What i would like to see are books all of the same thickness , height , language ,cover design , print size and colour . That way when , on the rare occasion visitors come-a-visitin i can show off my bookshelf in all its IDENTICAL STANDARDISED UNIFORM UNIMAGINATIVE glory .
so there .
only the other day i went into Waterstones and discovered shelf after shelf of BOOKs of different thicknesses , sometimes as much as 1 millimeter difference in width between volumes that stood side by side ( i measured them ) .
Unfortunately , there IS more , some books were even taller than others , some had print that was larger than others , and most staggeringly of all , some were in foreign languages such as French or German .
What i would like to see are books all of the same thickness , height , language ,cover design , print size and colour . That way when , on the rare occasion visitors come-a-visitin i can show off my bookshelf in all its IDENTICAL STANDARDISED UNIFORM UNIMAGINATIVE glory .
so there .
I think you've embarassed yourself with your own irony there. Of course books are different sizes but since when did they start coming in boxes?
If DVD discs themselves we're all of different sizes then, fine, put them in different boxes but since the contents of them are the same surely the packaging need not be varied (especially not with cheap, flimsy, cardboard folders).
If DVD discs themselves we're all of different sizes then, fine, put them in different boxes but since the contents of them are the same surely the packaging need not be varied (especially not with cheap, flimsy, cardboard folders).
What's a DVD?
I'm not familiar with Fight Clubs box, Ali, but given what you've said I think if I saw it in a shop I'd probably have to go out and kill someone to relieve the tension.
Imagine if you bought a brick to finish building your house and when you got home to your nearly-completed abode found that the brick didn't fit because it was a special edition brick with a hologram stuck to the side or a donkey etched into the side. A brick is a brick and a disc is a disc - lets put some order into this crazy world!!!
Imagine if you bought a brick to finish building your house and when you got home to your nearly-completed abode found that the brick didn't fit because it was a special edition brick with a hologram stuck to the side or a donkey etched into the side. A brick is a brick and a disc is a disc - lets put some order into this crazy world!!!
There's rather a lot of fuss about not much at all going on here. I have to agree with the Totally Reasonable Bloke and his much-admired irony in thinking that DVD boxes shouldn't all be the same size, shape, weight, colour or religion (maybe I'm exaggerating). I agree that the standard plastic boxes are much the best and that those cheap cardboard look like they've fallen from an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. But it's really not worth arguing over. Why can't boxes of all backgrounds live together, side by side and in harmony with one another and the beautiful world around them? They can, actually, unless you're a die-hard perfectionist with nothing better to do than make totally un-important remarks about the condition of DVD boxes.
I do think, on a slightly different subject, that the introduction of DVD-style boxes for the latest PC and PS2 games is a very good idea as it saves a lot of shelf space. However, they do look a bit UGLY when they're sitting next to big cardboard boxes on the shelf of my local games emporium. Why can't they make games boxes that are all the SAME SIZE? Hmmm...
I do think, on a slightly different subject, that the introduction of DVD-style boxes for the latest PC and PS2 games is a very good idea as it saves a lot of shelf space. However, they do look a bit UGLY when they're sitting next to big cardboard boxes on the shelf of my local games emporium. Why can't they make games boxes that are all the SAME SIZE? Hmmm...